History
476
Devine
Spring
2016
Final Exam Study
Questions
The final
exam will consist of three parts: FOUR short essay questions and TWO long essay
questions. In Part One, I will give you
six short essay questions; you will choose four to answer. In Part Two, you will answer the question on
Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi.
In Part Three, you will answer the question on Michael Patrick MacDonald’s All Souls. The exam questions will be
taken from the questions below.
There
will be no questions on the exam that do not appear below. Since you have the
questions ahead of time, it is
expected that you will answer with more than just a superficial response. Be sure to include as much specific evidence
from the reading as possible to explain and support what you assert. If in
grading your short answers it is clear to me that you have drawn on specific
evidence from the reading (and, even better, specific evidence that goes beyond
what we went over in class) you are more likely to get 9 or 10 points rather
than 7 or 8.
To
receive a passing grade for each of the long essay questions, your answer must
be grounded sufficiently in specific evidence to make it clear to me that you
actually read the book.
SHORT ESSAYS
- In his article
discussing the Beats, what does Holton mean by the “folds of
heterogeneity”? Why is this an apt
metaphor to describe the “cultural space” the Beats inhabited? What role
did Ginsberg’s Howl play in
drawing out a new subculture from the “folds of heterogeneity”? Why was hearing the poem a “moment of
recognition”?
- What groups became models for
alienated white men looking for alternatives to mainstream American
society? Why was their admiration
of “outsiders” often naïve or even racist?
- Why did the “moral
guardians” of the Southern way of life see the emergence of rock music and
the desegregation of schools as interconnected threats to the
South’s social order? What “threat”
did these two social developments pose?
- How did Elvis
Presley “negate” mainstream attitudes about race, sex, and the protestant
work ethic? Why did Elvis’s ability to do this cause parents to “dread”
him? [Robert Pielke article]
- Why did the fact
that Elvis was white make him so threatening in the minds of both black
and white parents?
- Why did Elvis’s
purchase of a pink Cadillac seem so subversive to many white middle-class
Americans? Why did the fact that it
was pink make them even angrier?
- How did the
experience of poverty and low social status shape Elvis’s attitude about
his own success? How did growing up
poor and marginalized shape his music?
- What evidence does
Michael Bertrand introduce to discredit the myth that Elvis had no
following among African Americans and that he “stole” his act from African
Americans?
- How does the
assumption that Elvis Presley was out to “copy” black music in order to
become a commercial success ignore the historical realities of life in the
South during the 1950s? In 1954,
why was “acting black” and “crossing the color line” not a likely road to
success for a white artist?
- Why
were the ideas of the Old Left not much help to the New Left in its
attempt to critique the “Affluent Society”?
- What was
“participatory democracy”? Why did
SDS members believe that adopting it would improve American society? Why did participatory democracy prove
more attractive in theory than in practice?
- According to Steigerwald, how did the New Left change between 1962
and 1969? Why did these changes
bring about the New Left’s downfall?
- How
did the counterculture’s protests against the “system” differ from those
of political activists? What about the “system” most bothered
those in the counterculture? What alternative did they offer to the status
quo?
- What
kinds of forces – within and beyond their own families – left young women
in the 1950s and early 1960s feeling oppressed, out of place, or
unsatisfied? Given these feelings, why were they attracted to joining the “counterculture”?
- How
does Joan Didion’s first-hand
panoramic view of life in the Haight convey a different impression of the
counterculture than that portrayed in history books and in popular culture
[In order to answer the question, you need to discuss not only Didion’s portrayal but also academic and popular
portrayals of the counterculture, otherwise you won’t be able to show
how Didion’s portrayal is different.]
- In what ways was
punk a reaction to the musical culture of the 1970s?
- How did punks
during the 1980s demonstrate a “D. I. Y.” (Do it
yourself) attitude?
- Within the context
of the punk subculture of the 1980s, what does it mean to be
“anti-corporate”? What aspects of the
corporate music culture did punks reject and what steps did they take to
offer an alternative musical culture?
- According to Kevin
Mattson, why have various sub-cultural rebellions among the young since
the 1950s failed to offer clearly reasoned alternatives to the mainstream
culture they are rebelling against?
- According to Ilana
Nash, how did teenage girls who listened to Shawn Cassidy (and other teen
idols) actually demonstrate more of a feminist consciousness than other
girls in the “cool” group who listened to hard rock music?
- How does Nash
answer the criticism that young girls idolized “androgynous” singers like
Shawn Cassidy because they weren’t “ready for real boys”?
- How were women’s
roles in the world of music constricted during the 1950s and 1960s? What roles did they play? How were they treated by male performers
and industry executives?
- What impact did
the emergence of punk have on young women?
How did female punks demonstrate their rejection of traditional
notions about femininity?
LONG ESSAYS
Coming of Age in Mississippi
Why was
Anne Moody different than most other African Americans in Mississippi? What
character traits did she have that others lacked? Why did these traits make her
an effective leader in the Movement?
All Souls
Why was
it so difficult for the residents of Southie to come to terms with the poverty
in their neighborhood? How did both the white liberals and, especially, Whitey
Bulger make it even more difficult for them to overcome their false pride and
take steps to improve their lives?